Two reporters escaped with their lives, but left Cambodia with very different stories. History shows one was right.

By Elizabeth Becker

October 3, 2016 3765 words

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Richard Dudman (far left), Malcolm Caldwell (far right), the author, and Commander Pin, a senior Khmer Rouge military figure, stand near Cambodia's eastern border. (Courtesy of Elizabeth Becker)

Last year, I was flown to Cambodia to testify as an expert witness for the prosecution at the genocide trial of two senior Khmer Rouge leaders. As a journalist and author, I assumed my biggest challenge would be protecting any confidential sources while maintaining a reporter’s right to refuse to testify. I consulted an attorney and assured myself on both counts. Then I pored over documents and interview transcripts, preparing for tough questioning from the defense.

 

I testified for three long days in a somber courtroom in Phnom Penh. I repeatedly insisted that the defense attorneys explain each flimsy allegation before I answered their questions, and spoke slowly to insure I didn’t make any foolish mistakes. I held back tears discussing the assassination of a British professor I’d witnessed in 1978. 

 

The United States had called the continuing Cambodian tribunal the most important human rights trial in the world today. At the trial I attended, the last two surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, were finally being held accountable for their role in the radical and savage revolution that killed over two million Cambodians—a quarter of the population—between 1975 and 1979.

Yet despite all my preparations, there was one big surprise: The trial inadvertently resolved a 37-year-old disagreement between two reporters over how to cover genocide. Fundamentally, it was a classic clash of reporting styles. I was a young journalist who had learned about Cambodia’s culture, history, politics, and language and, above all, had lived with its people. My colleague and competitor was a senior reporter based in Washington with deep experience covering the State Department and US foreign policy who visited or parachuted into many foreign countries to cover world events, but who had not lived in Cambodia.

 

Long and complete report to be read here http://www.cjr.org/special_report/genocide_cambodia_reporters.php

A very good story and thanks to you Elizabeth for your great work and heroism in the pursuit of the truth.